Feel at home in the worlds leading mastering studios.

For the avant gardists among the mastering engineers, Sequoia provides much more than just a familiar working environment.

Sequoia's mastering area not only contains excellent plug-ins, such as linear EQ, but also streamlined workflows and data exchange in line with industry standards (e.g. DDP export).

CD/DVD mastering

Sequoia lets you burn CD masters directly from a multi-track project or an audio project. This means that the whole process, from recording to master CD, is covered by Sequoia. The CDs produced are 100% Red Book-compatible and can be sent directly for pressing. The CDs can be configured to include copy protection, UPC/EAN, ISRC, pre-emphasis, and CD text.

In order to reduce the bit depth to the 16-bit CD-format and preserve the highest level of quality possible, Samplitude includes POW-r dithering. Developed by the POW-r Consortium, this patented algorithm works on a psycho-acoustic basis to permit word length reduction with a very high degree of usable signal dynamics, with or without noise shaping.

Audio material with higher sample rates may be burned in stereo or Surround to audio DVDs. Audio files are burned uncompressed (linear PCM) according to the DVD audio standard.

DDP import/export

Sequoia supports professional file exchange between mastering studios and pressing plants. DDP masters are mastered CDs that aren't burned to audio CDs. They are digital data provided with a checksum that are sent to the pressing plant to guarantee that the production is absolutely free of errors. It's also possible to import DDP masters for editing or to compare them to the original project.

Sonoris Sequoia DDP Player

The Sonoris DDP player is a standalone application contained in Sequoia and can be used to check DDP masters that you have created yourself or received from others. You can playback tracks and track transitions, see all PQ codes, ISRC, MCN and CD text data, and automatically check projects for RedBook compatibility. The DDP player can read DDP 1.0x and 2.00 formats.

Import/export of ISRC in Broadcast Wave files

Sequoia can read and write to Broadcast Wave files in accordance with EBU Tech 3352 ISRC. This is an important step towards optimally supporting mastering engineers working with modern, file-based workflows.

Loudness Metering in accordance with EBU R128 and ITU-R BS.1771

An important feature in Sequoia is loudness metering, which has become one of the most important topics in the radio world in recent years, and is rapidly taking over from known peak-based metering methods. Up until now, peak control using peak levels (-9 dBFS as a rule) has been the standard in radio production. Peak limiters were often used, which limit an audio signal's dynamics, thus negatively affecting sound quality. Loudness metering takes a different approach. In contrast to peak metering, the loudness measurement is integrated above the time.

In combination with the introduction of open standards for peak control there are reliable ways for engineers and producers to describe subjective loudness in countable terms.

In Sequoia, you can switch between EBU R128 and ITU-R BS.1771 loudness measuring on the fly.

ITU Recommendation BS.1770-3 is the international standard in loudness measurement.

True Peak Metering

In addition to loudness normalization, ITU-R BS. 1770-3 also provides a measurement recommendation for digital audio peak levels. Normally, the peak values are determined in accordance with the sample rate by reading individual sample values.

However, on account of the system, it's not possible to verify that the samples correspond exactly to the audio peaks, which arise as soon as the signal is processed or the wave form is reconstructed. Due to the inaccuracies of a sample peak meter, it's not possible to avoid clipping or distortion in the analog output if the individual samples in the original aren't at full scale. So, a normal peak meter cannot represent "real" peak values. Inter-sample peaks identified by oversampling by a factor of 4 can now be displayed and allow you to see "true" peaks.

Revised metering and broadcast norms

The metering display in Sequoia has been completely revised. Resulting in numerous graphical improvements and the option to work with various layouts which feature a definable number of different visualizations. Furthermore, presets for the following broadcast norms have been added:

Type I, DIN scale - Type I, Nordic scaleType IIA, BBC - Type IIB, EBU

Loudness data export

An audio file's loudness parameters are displayed in the file manager and can be calculated there for a limited number of files. When switched on in the Broadcast Wave Editor, loudness parameters can be written to audio files when exporting and bouncing. The loudness parameters are stored in standardized metadata fields for broadcast wave files.